MID-TERM TEST 1

Part 1. GRAMMAR
Ex1: A. Choose the correct answer.

1. Jennifer tasted _____ birthday cake her mother had made.

A. A B. An C. The D. No article
2. Alex is in Boston studying for _____ MBA.
A. A B. An C. The D. No article
3. Dad turned on _____ radio to listen to _____ news.
A. A/A B. An/An C. The/The D. A/The
4. The children have _____ new teacher called Mr. Green.
A. A B. An C. The D. No article
5. The Mississippi river is in _____ United States of America.
A. A B. An C. The D. No article
A. Write the correct forms of the given nouns. Use each noun only one
time.

beach ox match discovery

laboratory tooth cliff man

1. The age at which the first tooth appears differs greatly from child to child.
Very occasionally, children are born with one or more ___________

2. Studies are showing that ____________________ process information

differently from women.

3. New scientific _____________are made every day in

_____________throughout the world.

4. The farmer loaded his cart with_______________ of fresh vegetables to

take to market. His cart was pulled by two ______________
5. The north side of the island has no _______________for people to walk on.
There are only steep________________. No one can climb these steep walls
of rock.

Ex2: Fill in the blanks with the given conjunctions below.

now that although because while nor

nonetheless because of therefore unlike since
otherwise thus both as
1. Stephen Crane's schooling was not continuous; ---- he read all of the 19th-
century English writers and the Greek and Latin classics.

2. Medical scientists have not yet discovered what causes muscular dystrophy,
an inherited disorder that strikes nerve tissue and cripples its victim. ---- do
they know what causes sudden death syndrome?

3. ---- more and more is learned about the biochemical changes that go on in
the body ---- it grows older, scientists may someday be able to modify those
changes to ensure better health for the aged.
Now that, as

4. ---- the emphasis on the technical study of language and literature, Roman
education was remote from the real world and the interests of the
schoolboys.

5. ---- the Greeks, who considered physical health a part of education, the
church considered the human body something to be ignored.

6. Abundance of prey can vary locally within a region. ----, whales must be
prepared to move constantly in search of the highest food densities.

7. ---- some teachers guide the natural development of the child's innate
powers, others build knowledge into the child's mind through a systematic
method of instruction.

8. A greenhouse is used ---- for displaying plants and, where winters are cold,
for growing plants that would not ---- survive the seasonal change.

9. ---- its creation in 1903, the High Court of Australia has been responsible for
interpreting the constitution.

10. ---- T.S. Eliot published few poems, they have had a tremendous
influence on modern poetic technique.

10 sentences to find the mistake:

Ex3: Find the mistake in the sentence and correct it.

1. It is raining when I got home last night.

2. My sister is annoying today, but usually she is nice.
3. I have not ate anything today.
4. If I am a child, I would play outside.
5. Everyone have seen that movie.
6. If we will be late, they will be angry.
7. My father is thinking that I should stop smoking.
8. Look! It is snow.
9. I fell asleep while I watched TV.
10. I have lived in Canada since 10 months.

Part 2. VOCABULARY
Ex1: You need to construct compound nouns from these words in the box
below to fill in the gaps in the sentences. Some of the words are used twice,
but in a different order! All answers should be entered as two separate
words.

window reading seat pub day

phone child light fishing card
table food frame work boat

1. I only have coins on me and that's a ___________

. I will have to see if there is a public phone in that bar.

2. I want to put a ________________

in the car as they say it really makes toddlers safer while driving.

3. John was furious with the airline company. He sat on that plane for 14
hours and his __________________didn't work. He couldn't even finish that
novel he was reading during the flight. He had to try and sleep.

4. "What type of credit card is that?" "That's not a credit card. That's a
_______________
. I use it once a week to call my mum back home in New Zealand."

5. All the ________________________

in this house have to be repainted. Otherwise, they will rot over the winter
and then we may not be able to open the windows in the spring.

6. English restaurants have a terrible reputation, but the ________________

is very tasty.
7. I worked at night for so long that when I finally started to do some
___________________
, I found it really strange.

8. A ________________________
sank off the Spanish coast last night. Both fishermen were saved by the coast
guard.

9. I know that Monday is a holiday for everyone else, but for us it's a normal
___________________
. We have to get this project finished by Wednesday!

10. Why do you have a ________________________

in the middle of your lounge? I keep feeling tempted to go up to the bar to
order drinks!!

Ex 2: Look at the table of idioms and definitions. Which idiom goes with
which definition. Study the table, then for each number, choose the correct
letter.

1.take for granted A used if something someone says, is

precisely correct
2. A piece of cake B to form an opinion or make a
decision about sth that is not the
same as the one you first had
3. Once in a blue moon C to stay neutral and not take sides
4.Hit the nail on the head D to never think about sth because
you believe it’ll always be available or
stay exactly the same
5. Sit on the fence E very rarely
6.Get on well with somebody F too much tasks to do
7.Pile of work G very easy
8.Feeling under the weather H have a good relationship
9.Change one’s mind I to miss an opportunity
10.Miss the boat J to be ill or unable to do regular
activities

Part 3. READING
Ex 1: Read what the people with different jobs say and match what they say
to the name of their job. Write the correct letter (A-E) in each box.

A Waiter B Nurse C Musician D Police Officer E

Dentist

1. Some people treat you so badly and think that's OK as long as they give
you a few dollars.
2. Many people are suspicious of us but I believe those people are the
ones with something to hide.
3. It's true that I have had to put my hands into and look into some nasty
places, but the money's great and everybody wants to know one of us!
4. It's not all fancy performances and globetrotting I can tell you! Without
hard work, dedication and lots and lots of practice, you won't succeed.
5. We have become a lot more aware in recent years about health
dangers that exist while working here and now we are even more careful.
After all, I want to remain on this side of the curtain!

Ex 2: Read the text and answer the questions below.

The largest thing in the universe

  More than ten years ago, while taking the temperature of the universe,
astronomers found something odd. They discovered that a patch of sky,
spanning the width of 20 moons, was unusually cold.

  The astronomers were measuring the thermal radiation that bathes the
entire universe, a glowing relic of the big bang. To gaze at this cosmic
microwave background, or CMB, is to glimpse the primordial universe, a time
when it was less than 400,000 years old.

  The CMB blankets the sky, and looks pretty much the same everywhere,
existing at a feebly cold temperature of 2.725 kelvins - just a couple degrees
warmer than absolute zero. But armed with the newly launched WMAP
satellite, the astronomers had set out to probe temperature variations as tiny
as one part in 100,000. Born from the quantum froth that was the universe a
half-moment after the big bang, those random fluctuations help scientists
understand what the cosmos is made of and how it all came to be.

  And standing out amidst those fluctuations was a cold spot. Over the years,
astronomers have come up with all sorts of ideas to explain it, ranging from
instrumental error to parallel universes. But now, they're homing in on a
prime suspect: an enormous cavern of emptiness called a cosmic supervoid,
so big that it might be the largest structure in the universe.

  According to theory, such a vast void, in which nary a star or galaxy exists,
can leave a frigid imprint on the CMB. The answer to the mystery, then, might
simply be a whole lot of nothing. Yet puzzles remain, and the case is far from
closed.

Primordial1 - ancient, existing a very long time

Do the following statements agree with the information given in the Reading
Passage?

In boxes 1–5, chose

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information

FALSE if the statement contradicts the information

NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

1. Astronomers often find something odd in the sky.

2. The CMB is the thermal radiation across the entire universe.

3. The CMB varies from extremely low to very high temperatures.

4. Investigation of fluctuations of temperature in space help scientists to

understand what the cosmos is made of.

5. The cosmic supervoid is the largest structure in the universe.

Ex3: Matching Headings to Paragraphs - GM FOODS

Divided opinions over genetically modified crops and foods
A) Europeans tend to be skeptical about the consumption of genetically
modified foods and there is strong consumer pressure, supported by the
Green parties, to ban farmers from growing GM crops in the European Union
(EU). However 5.5 million farmers worldwide, mainly in the US, Argentina,
Canada and China, now grow GM crops covering more than 50 million
hectares, an area the size of Spain. Other Asian countries such as India are
enthusiastic and Indonesia is about to join the GM club, so despite the
Europeans, GM crop growth is increasing globally.

B) A recent British scientists' report emphasizes that inserting genes into

plants is still a very inexact science, so unexpected biochemical side effects are
possible, affecting foodstuffs and human consumers. Legally, GM companies
have to demonstrate that their crops are "substantially equivalent" to the
originals, but what does this mean? That they should contain the same
nutrients? That they should look and smell similar? Scientists who not long
ago dismissed public concerns as hysteria are now concurring with green
consumer activists and advising tougher regulation.

C) More consensus and definition is required on this controversial topic.

Currently, it seems that most American consumers trust GM food producers
and associated big businesses, whilst Europeans do not. Canadians are
skeptical: their studies of cross pollinated "super strains" indicate problems
such as potential super viruses. Dutch studies however, suggest that
engineered sugar beet is friendlier to wildlife and less damaging to the
environment: it needs less herbicide for the same yield, allowing more weed
biomass and increased insects and spiders, which in turn feed increased
birdlife. These results are significant, as European law states that GM crops
may be banned if they can be proved to damage the environment.

D) Attitudes to GM crops appear to depend on where one lives and what one
does. Cotton farmers in South Africa are very enthusiastic, as their first GM
cotton crop proved extremely successful, boosting yields by 50 - 90%. "Bt
cotton" contains a gene for a bacterial toxin that kills their major pest,
bollworms and reduces the need for pesticides. Growing GM cotton requires
less labour time, an important factor in a region ravaged by HIV/AIDS. Bt
cotton seed yield shows increases of up to 129%; unsurprisingly, use grew
from only 0.1 per cent of farmers in 1997/98 to over 90 per cent by 2001/02.
Opponents of GM crops claim that pests will develop resistance soon and that
small farmers relying completely on the modified strain are particularly
vulnerable to changes in market conditions.
E) India is also pleased with its high relative yields of GM cotton and generally,
yield increases in the developing world are turning out to be much higher than
those of the 'first' world. It is understandable therefore, that developing
countries are keen to embrace GM foods and farming methods, whilst many
western farmers and consumers remain skeptical.

F) Meanwhile, in Hong Kong, the government's leaflet, 'GM Food Newsletter',

is annoying consumer activists and environmentalists. In the leaflet, a
university biotechnology student explains to her mother that all GM foods are
safety-assessed and are "as safe as their conventional counterparts". The Food
and Environmental Hygiene Department says it was published "with a view to
enhancing the knowledge of the public on GM food".

G) Greenpeace call it "blatant pro-GM food propaganda" however, and claim

"The government is pushing GM food safety whilst at the same time
understating the potential risks". It adds the government's role is "to educate
and inform the public, not to blatantly promote what is an unproven
technology." Greenpeace do not believe that a reasonable system of pre-
market safety assessments exists in Hong Kong and have been actively
campaigning for the compulsory labelling of GM ingredients. The government
argues that assessment is adequate enough to allay public fears and that
labelling of GM foods should be voluntary.

H) Park'n'Shop and Wellcome allow distribution of the GM newsletter, but a

spokeswoman said this did not necessarily imply active approval of GM foods,
adding they had previously helped the government deliver a series of
education leaflets, posters and information on SARS and dengue fever. "Our
policy on GM food is neutral," she said.

1. Environmentalists’ reaction
2. Differing yields in developing and “first” worlds.
3. Increased yields in Bt cotton
4. Hong Kong government’s “marketing” of GM foods
5. Legal implications
6. Reactions to GM cotton
7. Growing importance of GM foods
8. GM crops and viruses
9. Attitudes worldwide to GM foods
10. Supermarkets’ policy

Part 4. LISTENING
Ex1: Spoken postcard from Leroy, on vacation in Europe.
Listen to the mp3 file and complete the spaces in this table.
Monday Tuesday Wednesda Thursday Friday
Place? y
Sat Next Edinburgh Paris Rome (5) Helsinki
To? William (2) (4) Elisabeth (6)
Food? (1) Hot dog Steak Asparagus spaghetti
Souvenir? Photograp (3) Book Harmonica Computer
h

Ex2: A famous actress is interviewed about her recent work.

Listen to the mp3 file and choose the best answer for each question.

1. What does Jenny say about the last six months of her life?
A She's been incredibly busy.
B She feels she doesn't belong in this showbiz world.
C She's had too much to learn.

2. Why does Jenny use the football metaphor when talking about the cast of
her new movie?
A to show how hard they have all been working on the film.
B to give an idea of teamwork.
C to say something about the plot of the film.

3. And how does she view her role in the football team when asked?
A a minor, supporting role.
B the mother of the group.
C the serious one.

4. How did she find working with a famous actor on the film set?
A she was determined not to let it affect her work.
B she didn't find him very professional.
C she felt relaxed around him.

5. Why is Jenny happy that she will be in New York in a month's time?
A she doesn't like working in Chicago.
B family commitments make things difficult for her.
C her husband and daughter don't like living in Chicago.

6. Why was Jenny criticized for her comments about Broadway?

A she shouldn't have criticized something she profits off herself.
B she was only repeating something she had previously stated.
C she was too aggressive in her comments about Broadway.

7. What was, and is, at the heart of Jenny's criticism of Broadway?

A she wants equal pay for women.
B there aren't enough women working on Broadway.
C women should be given as many top roles as men are.

Ex3: Match the people and places on the left with the correct descriptions on
the right. Write ONLY the correct number in each space.

1. Daydream A An actor
2. Dennis B the interviewer
3. Arizona C a play
4. Tom D her husband
5. Choices E movie title
6. Longton F filming location
7. Larry G actress’s surname

Writing:
Ex1: Write a complaint letter (about 120 words)
Ex2: